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Entrada Archtop Guitar
Scott Tarulli
Berklee Professor Reviews Lefty Entrada

See Attached Video Review by Scott Tarulli of Boston, MA

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Vol. 4 - Ticket To Improv
gerald mckinnon
volume four

Super excellent

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The Jazz Lines
Jack Marchewka
Just getting started

Worked though the first two lessons of the Jazz Lines book (more to go), but it opened a door for me. I’ve come to understand there is a difference between theory and harmony. This is about learning harmony. If you want to play jazz learn harmony.

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Vol. 4 Wave
Mike Sanders - Las Vegas, NV
One of Conti's Best Solo Lessons

All of the Robert Conti DVDs are top-notch, but this one takes the cake. He takes what some consider to be a harmonically complex tune and breaks it done into the simplest of terms. From here, the viewer is taken through the lesson a few measures at a time, with each concept explained in detail and with care. Once you have the lesson under your hands, you not only have an impressive solo but an increased vocabulary of lines to use on other songs and a better understanding of how to approve improvisation over any song. Great fun and well worth the effort. If you are new to improvisation, I recommend learning from a few of Conti’s “Ticket to Improv” DVDs first as you will internalize the lesson much faster and have a greater understanding of the concepts presented.

Preferred Gauge Strings

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Preferred Gauge Strings
Jack Marchewka
My choice of strings

For my Entradas. These strings came with my Entradas so I’m sticking with them. Live the wound 3rd string. Great tone and playability!

Chord Melody at Its Best!

This is a great DVD to start building your chord melody repertoire. Mr. Conti walks you thru the classic “Since I Fell for You” and provides you with several ways to approach the tune using a series of different chordal harmonic arrangements. Besides learning to play the song several different ways, Mr. Conti is at the ready with his famous “Off the Sheet” tips. These are items that not part of the regular lesson plan, but are sure to help take your chord melody playing to an even higher level. Of the Chord Melody arrangements, this is my personal favorite, but after finishing the DVD, I purchased ALL the other Chord Melody DVDs as I was so inspired to learn more.

The Formula: 2003 Product Review in JJG

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Review appeared in the May 2003 Issue of Just Jazz Guitar Magazine.  This was a review of the original book, 7 years prior to the addition of the two DVDs.

Nowadays the guitar educational field is simply glutted with a plethora of method books and learning aids, ranging from excellent to mediocre, but every once in a while there comes along a contribution that is truly unique and ground-breaking in scope. Jazz guitarist Robert Conti’s “The Formula” falls directly into that category, and I recently had the pleasure of reviewing his recent publication for Just Jazz Guitar Magazine.

“The Formula” was inspired by Robert’s early fascination with techniques used by piano legends Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson. In his book, Mr. Conti squarely tackles the often-daunting but very popular subject of reharmonization, an almost mystical area of interest among aspiring chord melody guitarists, regardless of their level of ability or years of experience in the field.

Employing the same “easy to learn and apply” philosophy that permeates his entire line of learning products, Robert avoids the excessively theoretical approach typically associated with jazz guitar education, and succeeds in making what could be a highly-complicated topic easily digestible.  Instead of relying on classroom rhetoric, Conti uses real world excerpts from traditional classics to convey his formula to the student.

The book is divided into two sections, the first outlining the basis for the numerous examples, the second containing the musical examples themselves, using chord grid diagrams that make it easy for the student to visualize the application of the formula and its variations in a lead-sheet scenario.  This approach is particularly attractive to those who use fakebooks or individual music scores to create chord-melody arrangements.

In conclusion, “The Formula” is a book that effectively bridges a significant gap for evolving guitarists and even non-guitarists, and is already being viewed by many as a “must have” addition to their learning library.  Highly recommended.  “The Formula” (Pinnacle Publishing) is available for purchase from www.robertconti.com

Review by Mark Stefani

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Through November 30, 2023, use coupon code BFCM23 at checkout (be sure to click the apply button!) to save 30% on all learning resources, both shipped and streaming. Please note that Conti Guitars are not included in this sale event, but we still have a couple of the heavily discounted Entrada prototypes available!